New Orleans police report $600 cash missing from evidence room

An internal New Orleans police audit recently discovered about $600 in cash missing from the department's Central Evidence and Property Room, NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas said this week.

'We've been putting a lot of energy and effort into fixing this,' New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said.

Missing money logged in as evidence has been a chronic problem for the NOPD.

The FBI last year began a broader look at problems of missing cash at the NOPD's evidence room. In 2009, police officials acknowledged that the total amount of cash that had gone missing in recent years was more than $200,000. After two NOPD probes failed to get to the bottom of the missing money, Serpas said he asked the FBI to get involved shortly after his appointment in May 2010.

Serpas said his agency is looking into the most recent disappearance, trying to determine whether the money was stolen or simply misplaced.

A report by WWL-TV said Capt. Rose Duryea, the commander of the evidence room, wrote a report noting that $606 had gone missing from a secure drop box used by officers to store valuable evidence. While drugs placed in the box were discovered, the money went missing after being logged into the NOPD's system last month, WWL-TV reported.

Serpas said the positive sign is that the NOPD's internal mechanisms were able to discover the problem, which means it can now be investigated. "Our audits found it. Our natural processes we put in found out," he said.

Serpas added that he is pleased with the new leaders he put over the evidence room, saying that they are improving the division's operations. "We've been putting a lot of energy and effort into fixing this," he said.